Until today, I had not run my pug mill for a long time. I had forgotten what a mess it is to clean. Has anyone found something easier than a garden hose?

Larry

You can keep it wet with damp towels and or sponges and covered with plastic.Its been years since I had to clean one but a plastic scraper was a good tool-never used a garden hose-the key is to keep it wet inside.Or you can let it dry out hard and knock off dry chunks.Mark.

I had a nice, large pugmill, in one of my classrooms. It had a large hopper, which had a lid, as did the extrusion end. So while I had my Ceramics class, I would simply close up the mill, when we weren't using it. The clay stay just fine. At the end of the course, I'd pug out, any remaining soft clay, then leave the whole thing open. After a couple days, I'd come back, and go around, and lightly bang on the outside, with a wooden mallet. Once all the dried pieces were knocked down, I'd turn the mill on again, and it would push out, a majority of the dry bits. After that, I'd take out the bolts, and split the thing in half to clean the auger and such, with a bucket and a sponge.

The best thing to do, if you don't want to clean it often, is just keep the thing sealed up, as much as possible.

I love the idea of just sealing it up to keep it wet. It fits with my general emulation of the Peanuts character Pig-pen. Since it's official advice from professional potters, I no longer have to feel guilty about it.

The old Walkers had a metal cap on one end for sealing. My old Peter Pugger had a rubber cap for sealing the end. Towels on the inside intake keep the rest damp.
I use to take apart the walker over the summers at the college. The peter Pugger wasn't stainless and rusted with big chunkc coming out in the clay.

My Bailey is easy to take apart and clean. I like it. I have switched from porcelain to raku and back and can get it perfectly clean including the deairing section.

So I think the question is not is there an easy way to clean pug mills, but are the brands of pugmills that can be easily cleaned.

yeah, i have a bluebird 440 and find it a devil to clean. any suggestions would be gladly received. i had to stop potting for over two months due to a hip replacement with a loooong recovery. even tho i wadded plastic in the hopper and covered the extruding area, i have a hard block in there. will nothing but a good amount of water do the trick. and while i have people's attention and would like to know if i can put commercial paper clay into the blue bird to reclaim and /or extrude. thanks for all your help